Elections have consequences, and Wisconsin's liberal majority Supreme Court is proof of that, with two Leftist rulings in the past week.
On July 3, they overturned the state's ban on abortion.
On July 8, they ruled that Gov. Evers' ban on conversion therapy can proceed. More specifically, they ruled that the Republican-controlled legislative committee's attempt to block that rule violated Wisconsin's constitution.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court decided to uphold the governor’s ban on conversion therapy. Bryna Godar, staff attorney for @uwlawdemocracy, highlights that the dispute over rulemaking raises big questions about the separation of powers. Read more: https://t.co/H3w3MtLRKl.
— University of Wisconsin Law School (@WisconsinLaw) July 10, 2025
Here's more from the UW Law School:
Shortly after Evers became governor in 2019, his administration’s Department of Safety and Professional Services proposed banning the widely discredited practice of using therapy to change a person’s gender identity or sexual orientation. The Evers administration’s ban applied to social workers, marriage counselors and family therapists, which are all professions licensed by the state. It did not apply to religious institutions, which are not licensed by the state.
In 2021, Republicans on the Legislature’s Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules blocked the ban from taking effect, then used a procedural maneuver to keep it shelved. They introduced legislation that would have, if passed, blocked the ban in law. But rather than seek to pass that bill, GOP leaders deliberately shelved it — keeping the ban from taking effect without the full Legislature having to take a vote on it and sidestepping a gubernatorial veto. They took the same action in 2023.
In the court’s majority opinion, Karofsky wrote that the laws governing that process — including the committee’s ability to indefinitely object to a proposed rule — meant a very small number of legislators had the power to unilaterally “halt a rule from having effect.”
I distinctly remember the Left protesting against having any 'kings' in government not too long ago. Yet Tony Evers can unilaterally enact a rule banning conversion therapy without input from the state legislature?
That seems like king behavior to me.
In the dissent, conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley astutely noted:
“Progressives like to protest against ‘kings,’” Bradley wrote, “unless it is one of their own making.”
The Legislature’s Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules did what it was supposed to do, and if those procedural maneuvers are legal, had every right to block the rule. The Supreme Court had no business interfering with the Republican-controlled legislature in the name of LGBTQ 'rights.'
We have a state Supreme Court comprised of activist judges who made it very clear how they planned to rule before hearing any arguments in the case.
I won't ignore the fact that the Republican-controlled legislature has -- once again -- dropped the ball on this. Not only did I not know this happened until someone else told me (someone who doesn't live in Wisconsin, by the way), but I see no Republicans pushing back against this judicial activism.
Additionally, the Republicans aren't passing legislation. As I said in my abortion piece, they can -- and should -- be pushing conservative bills through the Assembly and Senate. On this issue, they could easily pass legislation protecting conversion therapy in the state of Wisconsin and send it to Evers' desk. Evers would veto it.
But let him go on record as vetoing it.
Then, the Republican-controlled legislature should put forth legislation banning 'gender-affirming care' for minors in the state of Wisconsin.
Send that to Evers' desk and let him veto it, too, and prove that Democrats like some forms of conversion therapy.
